in, barely, but not quite settled...

We have landed, with a thud...
This move was not quite as smooth as I like our moves to be. It just plain through me for a loop, for whatever reason. I like for things to be organized by what goes on the truck, what we will take personally, what needs to be packed last and unpacked first, keeping tabs on phones, and remote controls, computers, school books, etc. None of that really happened this time. And on top of everything else, the air conditioner stopped working sometime in the day or two before the movers arrived. It was cool enough to have the windows open, so we weren't using it. I just happened to look over at the thermostat that morning and see that it was blank and not responding to any of the buttons.
But we left the other place completely empty and broom swept on Wednesday. We are in the new place, and have finally turned in the keys to the other place - that didn't go very smoothly either. The real estate agent handling the deal for the bank, which now owns the property, was delayed by a few days in getting here from Maryland, and then got a flat tire on the way here Saturday. The bank offered us a small cash payment in exchange for our quiet exit from the property without a lengthy eviction proceeding. Keep in mind, we did nothing wrong here, and were technically bound by the lease we had signed with the previous owner. We had every right to stay if we were so inclined to fight for that right. But our decision was to leave on our own terms. In fact, we had already given our notice to the original landlord two weeks before, on the grounds that he was in violation of the terms, by not paying for the water bill, lying and neglecting to make necessary repairs to the property (such as the kids' bathroom sink was spewing water from beneath the sink.) I cannot imagine the surprise we would have been in for had we not seen this foreclosure coming. From first appearance of the bank's real estate agent (three days after the auction) to the date we negotiated for our exit, was merely two weeks. Their small cash offer was less than half of our lost security deposit, but covered most of our moving expenses.

It's over now, the worst part, I guess. We still have a lot of unpacking to do. And since Tim was home for two weeks during the house hunting and packing portion and he is back to work now, the unpacking portion is bound to take a while.
We'll keep posting as things settle down more.